Telstra Wins Legal Case Against Australian Olympic Committee

Australian media company Telstra won a legal battle with the Australian Olympic Committee this week, a skirmish over the company’s promotions leading up to the Olympics.

Telstra was a sponsor of the Australian Olympic Committee up until last year, when it severed ties with the AOC, according to News.com.au.

Now, Telstra partners with the Seven Network, which is a commercial free-to-air television network that broadcasts the Summer Olympics.

According to News.com.au, Telstra had been promoting itself as “the Official Technology Partner” of the Seven Network, and had launched a campaign called “I go to Rio” to market that partnership. Telstra customers get free access to Seven’s Olympic coverage through Seven’s app.

The Australian Olympic Committee, though, was upset about the marketing, claiming Telstra was making “a clear attempt to deceive Australians” into thinking Telstra was still an official sponsor of the Australian Olympic team.

Last week, a judge sided with Telstra, dismissing the AOC’s application that would have forced Telstra to stop its commercials promoting the Olympics on the Seven app.

The Australian Olympic Committee released a statement calling the decision “a very narrow application of the law” that goes “against the interests of Australia’s Olympic Teams.”

You can read the full AOC statement here, but a short excerpt is published below:

Yesterday in the Federal Court, the Honourable Justice Wigney handed down judgment in the matter of the Australian Olympic Committee (AOC) v Telstra. The AOC wishes to convey its appreciation to the Court for the expeditious manner in which the case was heard.

Disappointingly, the Court’s decision in this particular case has, on what the AOC considers to be a very narrow application of the law, gone against the interests of Australia’s Olympic Teams.

Despite finding that “there could be no doubt that Telstra intended to, and may well have succeeded in capitalising or exploiting, in a marketing sense, the forthcoming Rio Olympic Games”, the Court did not consider that Telstra’s “extensive marketing and advertising campaign which… is focused or themed around the forthcoming Rio Olympic Games” crossed the “fine line” by contravening the law.